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double chocolate candy cane cookies & giveaway!
Butterscotch Amaretti (video) from GGFVE
I’ve (finally!) uploaded another video onto my youtube channel.
Candy Cane Marbled Biscotti
I seriously don’t know how to describe these bad boys. Like majorly embellished Thin Mints? A tribute to all that is glorious and wintery in crunchy cookie form? Abso-friggin-lutely fantastic with coffee?
Let’s go with all of the above.
Super Soft Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies
These lovelies are somewhere in between cookies and cakes… and some may say they even have a little muffin action going on! Not overly pumpkiny, these soft and scrumptious cookies are a perfect snack with hot chocolate on a brisk autumn night.
Lemon Olive Oil Cookies
Friends, today I set out to share a delicious new cashew cream truffle recipe with you, while trying to juggle a multitude of other tasks. And I failed. Miserably. :\ I won’t go into details, but let’s just say my kitchen was definitely a pathetic sight to see.
But! Then I remembered I had this bag of lemons kickin’ around, and the fresh smell of lemon always pulls me out of a funk. So I cheered myself up by baking a batch of these citrusy morsels. And man, am I ever glad I screwed up those truffles; these cookies are really good.
Soft, tangy, and similar to a snickerdoodle in texture, these cookies are a nice treat on a warm summer day — especially alongside a refreshing scoop of lemon sorbet. If you don’t like the flavor of olive oil and would prefer a milder cookie, feel free to sub it out with melted margarine or coconut oil.
Thin Mintz
Recently I have been hearing mentions of it being “girl scout cookie time”, and although now I obviously abstain, I still get a little nostalgic thinking about my short lived years peddling those things. I was a girl scout for just five years… but in that time, I easily ate hundreds (no thousands) of girl scout cookies. I mean, I had to spend my allowance on something, right? The flavor I loved the most was thin mints… by a long shot. I could crush an entire packet of those things in one sitting, without a single complaint from my belly. That’s like 30 cookies at once. We had a very serious relationship, thin mints and I.
Happily, I found my love re-kindled with a homemade version of the classic cookie. When I was making the ice cream sandwiches last week, I was thinking that the dough would make an excellent crunchy wafer if baked a little longer. Then I thought about how I could easily slip some minty flavor in there, dip it in chocolate and re-create my childhood cookie love. The rest is history.
These babies taste pretty damn good and authentic, if I do say so myself. No hydrogenated oils, gluten, or animal products needed.
Almond Thumbprint Cookies
These cookies are as simple to make as they are beautiful.
Use any flavor of preserves you’d like in these…. I happen to really love the amber glow of the apricot preserves. A thicker jam or fruit preserve is key to having a uniform color puddle in your cookies. Sprinkle with a touch of confectioners sugar for the ultimate eye-popper.
Fennel Seed Stars
I really feel like Rainbow Brite would be right at home in the above photograph. And that makes me smile.
Do you know what else makes me smile? Candy coated fennel seeds.
These slightly crunchy Fennel Seed Stars are a perfect vehicle for those little candies… second only to eating them straight from the bag. ♥
Apricot Nut Roll Cookies
Every single year, for as far back as I can remember, my mother makes a rugelach type cookie which she (and what I presume every member of her extended family) calls simply a “nut roll”. I haven’t had her rugelach in quite some time because it has all kinds of things in it that I just don’t do; but every year around this time, I start to crave it like nobody’s business.
So, starting in Autumn I begin to make a bunch of cookies of this “rugelach” type… pretty much all the way until January (when I start cursing winter and planning my move to the tropics). This version is not overly sweet and they are kinda big. You could share one… if you were really desperate to be a nice person. But this recipe makes quite a few cookies, so there’s no need to get all crazy…
Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
Hiya all! I’m back.
Well, truthfully I hadn’t gone anywhere. I have been sitting on my computer for the last week and a half trying my damn-dist to get this blog all fixed up. Unfortunately, my former webhost had some issues and both of my websites with that host were hacked. Fun.
It occurred while I was on my super fun mini vacation. My family enjoyed a quick getaway with my long time BFF from Philly and her fams. It was a blast. Good eats, fireworks, my favorite people all in one place, swimming pools, and dogs galore.
But coming home to my website spewing out maliciousness was pretty horrible. :)
Needless to say, I had to do some major cleaning up, and I had to switch hosts… and it took a bit of time to do so.
But, no worries. Everything is happy and secure and fresh and new, and I’ve brought along some extra chocolatey chip cookies. Or, at least the recipe.
It feels so good to be back up.
Whew.
Thank goodness for BFF’s from Philly who know how to fix broken websites. Thank goodness for my supportive hubs who spent all hours of every day working hard and freaking out along side of me, but doing a much better job of keeping his cool than I. Thank goodness for puppies… for just being so darn cute and snuggly when I needed it the most.
And thank goodness for you understanding and wonderful readers. ♥
Chocolate Twirly Doodle Cookies (GF)
The name says it all.
Okay, maybe not. But they are chocolatey, and twirly… and “doodle” just sounded nice with the rest. And, seriously, what kind of cookie with a “doodle” at the end doesn’t taste good?
These cookies are my first experiment using sorghum flour, and I must say, I am pretty impressed. It seemed to work a lot like buckwheat, but was a touch lighter in color and in taste.
With this new promising flour, I decided to try my hand at some rolled cookies. And, when it worked out almost effortlessly, I decided to roll them again… with a little chocolate sugar inside.
The results were even better than I expected, with a taste, texture and (a word that has been abuzz lately, and I [childishly] find pretty funny) “mouthfeel” like typical AP flour cookies.
They are soft and flavorful with a hint of almond flavor, and they definitely give me the confidence to try out new and exciting ways to manipulate GF dough.
For all of you readers who still like your baked goods glutinous, I would assume you could sub out AP or whole wheat flour where I used the different flours/xanthan combo. I say this because I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe as a starting point. You may need to add a smidgen more flour to make it stiff and rollable… but I think it should work out okay. :)
Vegan Star Crunch!
As a child, did you ever love a food so much that you would risk the wrath of your huge and terrifying older brother to sneak the last one?
The other day my husband and I were reminiscing about childhood junkfood favorites, and I remembered how much I desperately loved Little Debbie Star Crunches. I had a sick obsession with these things. This most likely caused me to block all thoughts of them from my memory after I went vegan. Once my memory was triggered, though, I became dead set on the idea of making them myself. I needed a way to once again enjoy the taste/texture of the individually wrapped treats that I used to stash everywhere: lunchbox, pocket, fridge, freezer, bookbag, dresser drawer. It was kinda out of control.
I loved them primarily because of their gooey and crispy and hard to explain texture… which oddly enough gave them most of their flavor. I think sans the strange texture of a Star Crunch, we would be left with pretty much just “sweet”.
To recreate these things I needed a great filler, because the crispy rice and chocolate part is easy. The answer was the Medjool date! Dates are absolutely magical… I am super happy to have discovered the many uses of them.
These cookies are definitely close enough to an actual Star Crunch to satisfy my craving… without the long list of creepy ingredients and eternal shelf life.
Garam Masala Cookies
A little unconventional maybe– but pretty delicious for a last minute pantry raid. What I like best about these cookies is their texture– they are thin and chewy and crispy all at once. The flavor is, well, flavorful!
Since Garam Masala varies— I cannot guarantee that your cookies will taste just like my photo. :) Mine was a blend of coriander, cardamom, black cumin, cinnamon, celery, black pepper, allspice, cloves and anise. Each one of those spices had a special place in these cookies. A touch of cocoa really tops them off. Spicy, sweet and kind of chocolatey- could you really ask for anything more?
Anise Cookies
Ever since I first tasted a springerle, (which honestly was less than ten years ago) I fell in loooove with anise flavored cookies. There is something about the whole “flavor explosion” thing that happens –from just a touch of anise oil– that really drives me over the edge.
With these, I tried out a flour mix by Namaste Foods: Gluten Free Perfect Flour Blend… and had great success making them turn out as if I had used all purpose flour. This made me quite happy.
If you adore anise flavor, and are looking for a quick fragrant bite of awesomeness… then these are the cookies for you. Try them without the glaze for a more sophisticated “dipping” cookie.